I own all the books you listed. I'm halfway through Reversing: Secrets of Reverse Engineering and the IDA Pro Book. They're both very detailed and really clears things up. I like Secrets of Reverse Engineering better, but I can't really choose between the two, as they're both very good reads.

The Art of Exploitation focuses more on exploiting techniques, but will also be good for picking up some skills that are useful for reversing. I've read this book from cover to cover and I really really liked it! I haven't really started with the Shellcoders Handbook because I just got it last week.

I believe they're all must reads actually. Not so sure about the hand holding thing though.

Last edited by zeroflaw on Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

I think you will do just fine then. Most things are well explained. I found the experience from reading Hacking: Art of Exploitation and following through with the GDB debugger the most valuable. All of the registers and assembly instructions are well explained and how they translate to code.

But then again, I haven't finished the other books yet. Secrets of reversing seems to do a good job as well so far. Maybe someone else can tell you more about this book and the IDA Pro book.

I mostly use OlllyDbg, but sometime also use the freeware version of IDA Pro.

Get mixed in with an RE community, you will come across some type of code that you've never seen before and you will need the help of someone who knows. Of course, don't ask a question if the answer is contained within the first few pages of google search results.

Another resource you will need is on the Debugger you are using, and the disassembler. If you are Using IDA Pro, then hands down Chris Eagles book on IDA is the one to read. If you plan on using Immunity Debugger or Olly Debugger I'd spend some time going through the google pulling out tutorials and learn all you can about the debugger. If you plan on using WinDbg